‘The Irrational’ Star Maahra Hill Previews Second Season of NBC Drama: ‘We Traverse Different Genres’ (Exclusive)

NBC’s The Irrational beginning on Tuesday, Oct. 8 and Maahra Hill, who plays FBI Special Agent Marisa Clark, spoke to PopCulture.com about what to expect. The first season ended with the kidnapping of Karen David’s Rose Dinshaw. With her being the love interest of Jesse L. Martin’s Alec Mercer, Marisa’s ex-husband, things are going to get intense. On top of that, Marisa is still grieving the loss of her boyfriend, Jace. There will be a lot to look forward to and Hill is dishing about it all. (Interview has been edited for length and clarity.)

PopCulture: What can you preview for the upcoming second season of The Irrational?

Maahra Hill: Well, one of my favorite things about the second season is that we traverse different genres. So you’ll get some suspense. You’ll get some romance. You’ll get a little comedy. You’ll get, like, a clue, mystery episodes. We’re gonna just cover the camp, and, of course, it’s all still focused on cases and the case of the week and the relationships that are budding and waxing and waning, and it’s all done within a lighthearted, still very hopeful tone, so that carries over. But it’s just fun to kind of go through different genres, to bounce around.

PC: Marisa went through a lot last season with her boyfriend, unfortunately, being murdered. How will she continue to grieve in Season 2? 

Hill: Well, everybody grieves a little differently, right? So some of us just get it all out, and some of us suppress it and work, work, work, or just stay busy, that kind of thing. I think she’ll do a little bit of both. But we’ll kind of look more in this season at Marisa’s relationship with herself. I think it kind of turns her a little bit more inward than outward. So we’d have some closure on the case as a result, and yes, Jace was important to her because he was her partner, and the relationship was relatively new. But it was still devastating because of how it happened and why it happened, and everything. So we’ll look into that. We’ll address it, but it won’t be the entire focus because, again, everyone grieves a little differently.

PC: What will her relationship with Alec look like moving forward, especially in the premiere episode with Rose getting kidnapped?

Hill: Right. So that’s the focus of the first episode is to find out what happened to Rose in relationship to her relationship with the MI6. We get to do some dangerous, exciting things because of that. Her relationship with Alec, of course, she wants what’s best for him, and she wants him to be happy. At the end of Season 1, they decided they had a unique friendship, which I think is pretty cool because they’re exes, and they were able to end their relationship, though there was emotion in a way that kept them close.

They worked together. I think Marisa appreciates still being able to have Alec in her life despite the fact they are divorced. She can still keep an eye on him. She still knows he’s okay. But then she also does have to see what happens as the relationship with Rose unfolds. So it’ll be interesting for sure, but they’re still very close.

PC: What are you most excited to explore with Marisa this season?

Hill: I’m most excited to explore her relationship with herself. With other relationships that she’s had. from her foster mentor to her partner and her husband and her relationship with herself. I have to say I’m very excited about her relationship with Kylie because we don’t explore sisterhood enough. I think friendship is often overlooked and not held in high regard the way that it is in our actual lives. So for them to explore that friendship and that sisterhood, but also because I think people in general don’t explore relationships with themselves enough. I think it’s nice to see somebody do that.

PC: Is there anything in particular that you’re excited for fans to see in Season 2? 

Hill: I’m excited to see if they enjoy it as much as my favorite thing about it. That they could go from genre to genre. You know, like, do you like this clue, mystery, suspense, thriller, romance? It’s kind of funny now. You know what I mean? We kinda jump around a bit, and I’m curious and very excited to see fans’ reactions to that, to the idea that we’ve moved through genres.

PC: Now that The Irrational is in the second season and starting to find its sea legs, what are you hoping to dig into story-wise, either with Marisa or an overall storyline?

Hill: Well, we dug into some things this season. We’re actually towards the end of the season now. We’re still filming, but we’re towards the end of the season. So, the things that we dug into, I think, are pretty meaningful for Marisa’s character, I really appreciated it. A little bit more of a deep dive than we did there. And then it’s this ongoing exploration of human behavior and the things that motivate us to do what we do. I think just continuing that conversation and that dialogue around why we do what we do and doing it just in a different way. This time, we’re gonna make it suspenseful. This time, we’re gonna make it funny.

This time, we’re gonna make it dramatic. I think it’s still the same message. This is why we do what we do, and I’m just excited because my belief is that if we understand more about ourselves and each other, then there’s no potential for conflict because those two can’t coexist. We can’t have conflict and understanding in the same place. So my hope is that the show would just promote more understanding within relationship. We just do it in different funny, unique, exciting, mysterious, suspenseful ways this season.

PC: Is there anything else you can tease about Season 2?

Hill: I can tease that the way that relationships unfold is going to be exciting to see in all of their forms. Whether romantic, whether they’re platonic, in friendship, in sisterhood, I think the writers do a wonderful job of exploring different relationships this season. So, relationship with self as well. Relationship with self and others. I think they do a great job of that, and they go across genres. Like I said, I keep repeating it because I love the fact that we do that. We’re gonna see us look into psychopathy, which is psychopathic behavior. We’re gonna look into potential serial killers. There’s a lot to come. It’s a very full, very exciting season ahead.

The Irrational on Tuesday, Oct. 8 at 10 p.m. ET on NBC’s fall 2024 schedule.